"Emergence of Tribes By 1600, organized tribes such as the Delaware and Shawnee had moved into present-day West Virginia. In addition, the powerful Iroquois Confederacy began exerting its influence on the region. The Confederacy was an alliance of five Iroquois-speaking nations -- Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca -- formed in present-day New York in the late 1500s. In 1722, the Tuscaroras joined the Iroquois Confederacy, which became known as the Six Nations. When Europeans first explored western Virginia in the late 1600s, they discovered few Native Americans. Historian Otis Rice suggests this absence was due to the Five Nations, "which sought domination of the Ohio Valley as part of their effort to control the fur trade with the Dutch, and later the British. . . ." (WV: A History, 9). The Confederacy controlled the valley but other tribes were permitted to settle there. For example, a Shawnee village existed at present-day Point Pleasant and a Delaware village flourished at Bulltown in present-day Braxton County well into the 1700s…"Main pagelink